Quote Originally Posted by Fyrebrand View Post
Snip
Because with the standard 4 man this game never really had room for dedicated support, their utility would have to be so powerful to make it so that the remaining 3 people in the party could make up for a pure support just supporting- but at the same time we also have 8 man groups, and could you imagine how immensely effective they'd be by effecting 7 people instead of 3?

XI had 6 man groups that had up to 4 dps or 3+ BRD and their group sizes never went up. Yes they had alliances but bards didn't influence groups they were out of so that's moot. So simply put, they mashed Bard and Archer together as a means of adding a utility heavy class into the game without having the difficulty of balancing playing with 1 dps or 3 in your party, depending on 4 or 8 man content.